Pages

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Sacramento - a Belated Post

While we were in Modesto for Christmas we wound up with some unexpected free time and decided to take an impromptu day trip to Sacramento. Both Larry and Joe went to Sac State so our first stop was to wander around the campus, exploring all the old landmarks, and marveling at how much has changed in the last 10 to 30 years, which was apparently a lot. Aside from the freezing cold temps that day the campus is really pretty. It's right along a river and there are a lot of walking paths as well as a mini Golden Gate-type Bridge. It was fun hearing Joe and Larry's various stories from when they were students. We saw Larry's dorm buildings, where his friends flooded an unpopular RA's room. We also saw the scene of where his bike was stolen. Joe told us one of the few lifelong lessons he learned from a professor: be wary of any squirrel that comes right up to you because they're probably rabid. Right then a whole group of squirrels surrounded us and started moving in on us. Creepy! Of course Joe stopped to take a dozen pictures before we ran. Priorities.

The main building where Joe had his journalism classes.

Larry in front of one of his old dorm buildings.

Rabid squirrel??

After Sac State we went to the capitol building. Considering how close I lived to Sacramento while growing up, it's crazy that I've actually never been there before. There's a really pretty park around the building with several memorials and a rose garden. We stopped and took pictures at the Firefighters memorial, in honor of my dad. They had some statues and a wall with all the names of Californian firefighters who died in duty. The capitol building was all done up for the holidays, with a giant Christmas tree and a menorah. We also walked around the downtown area long enough to find some warm drinks. It's kind of weird that Sacramento is our capitol because San Francisco and LA are so much bigger and more bustling while Sacramento has a kind of small town feel. Joe and I already want to go back when we have a little more time to explore some more.

That's so sweet that you got to take your son to the campus! I love visiting my college campus (it's about an hour and a half away now, but I used to live 10+ hours away). It warms my heart to see grads bringing their kids for a tour through our little liberal arts school. I remember being in class right before homecoming and seeing professors say hello to former students and their kids. I always looked forward to when that would be me!

oh that is nice that you got to walk around campus. I'd love to walk around Uni of CO with Aria. It is just so gorgeous. Such a great place to live, too bad it has such a high cost of living. Too funny about the squirrels...just slowly back away =) Or they wanted handouts. That annoys me about monkeys that tourists feed, they are very aggressive when they do that.